MissRepresentation

I did not have any particular objections to this film, other than that the narrator's voice sounded like one of the tethered from the movie "Us", but it left me feeling like I should. I feel like I should have. I feel like there should be an objection, to a fact they said, or something they left out. Because the thing is, while I don't think that documentary was inaccurate, I feel like there are parts of women's stories that were  minimized to make the hardships seem even more harrowing than reality.

For example, the film spent very little time talking about what the media got right, and was much more keen to point out the shortcomings of television vs. the strengths. They mention successful women and have them comment and narrate, but don't go into depth on the specific accomplishments of "the 1st woman anchor" or "1st African American host", etc. They just state the title, the name- here, look, it's the person who broke the glass ceiling in their field, now look at all the crap they had to swim through to get there. Oh, and the stuff they still have to deal with.

I think my problem with this documentary was that it made it seem as though all women are are their struggles and to be strong and successful as a woman you must first suffer. It was contradictory to the empowerment message that was the point to the film.

I really enjoyed hearing both the male and female high school students give their opinion on the gender inequalities in media, particularly advertising. The kids were so articulate, passionate, intelligent, and precocious. It was refreshing to see people my age fighting for what they believe in, trying to make the world better for the future generation. I often lose hope that anything will improve, and just try to distance myself from negative media while I watch everyone else crash and burn. It was good for me to remember that I can help reduce the negative messages in media rather than just ignoring them.

I have felt the effects of media that these kids described. I don't think any teenage girl is comfortable in their own skin 100% of the time. The stereotypes that media perpetuates can make people insecure, or make them think they are not good enough. This is tough and can make depression and anxiety already prevalent in youth worse. Another problem I had with this documentary was that they demonized media so much that they made it seem like the soul cause for all of these mental health challenges- it is not. I definitely believe media does detrimental things, but we cannot give it credit for all our problems.

One thing that is not directly related to this specific documentary, but all the ones we've seen in class, is the idea that all of are experiences presently are now trivial. Everyone is so overexposed to TV, to ads, to stereotypes, to different lifestyles, to all the good and all the bad-- everything. It seems as though none of our experiences are original enough, none of our like and dislikes have not been felt before. The problem with creating a perfect world for our kids and future generations is that they'll have no problems of their own to solve. Though, this was combated by the use of high schoolers, it still seemed like it was mostly up to the adults to save everyone and fix things for the future generations.

Fact is, every generation faces challenges. We have to learn to deal with the pitfalls of advertising and the media, and while the way women are displayed is absolutely disgusting, kids can thicken their skin and learn to recognize the stupidity of the misrepresentation. Media, as much as it imitates life, is not accurate. Teens and people in general need to learn to be entertained by media without taking it too seriously.